Bucholly Castle

Bucholly Castle is a ruined promontory castle which can be found on the Caithness coast a few miles south of John o’Groats. It cannot be seen from the road and to reach it is a walk across unsignposted fields used for livestock which terminate in sheer cliffs.

The castle consists of a gate tower complex and a narrow courtyard which was provided with rows of buildings on each side.Those facing the shore formed the principal residential block, and may have incorporated a modest tower-keep, although the evidence can be interpreted a number of ways. The gate tower is the only building to survive to any height, with the rest being overgrown foundations no more than 1.5 metres high. The whole is separated from the shore by a wide rock-cut ditch, and access to the castle is dangerous and highly inadvisable at all times. As a hardened castle explorer I decided discretion was the better part of valour.

The castle first appears in the 15th century in the hands of the Mowat family, who had been granted the lands of Freswick by Robert Bruce, and it is likely that the castle we see today was founded by the Mowats in the reign of James I. The castle was named Freswick to begin with, but in the late 16th century when part of the estate of Freswick was acquired by the Sinclairs, the castle was renamed after the seat of the Mowats in Buchan, Balquholly. Buchiolly was then sold to the Sinclairs c1660, and it is likely the castle was abandoned thereafter.

HES Canmore database entry